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Show HN: Namesmith.io – Business Name Generator

20 points by ZenSwordArts 11y ago

ZenSwordArts 11y ago
Author here. I worked on that project part time for the last months. The backend is completely written in Go (Revel framework). There are a lot of features on my todo list but I thought it would be a good time for release. If you have any insights or questions I'm happy to answer!
charlieegan3 11y ago
This is great - the random names are particularly good. I did notice however that a high number of the 'available domains' are not. Might want to take a look into how they're checked. It'd also be nice if the checking happened automatically, as it does on https://domainr.com/ https://domainr.com/ Really nice looking project though.
- ZenSwordArts 11y ago
  Hey thanks! It's nice to get some positive feedback on a project :) I use an api from a domain registrar to check domain availability at the moment. I will investigate this.. should not be happening. The automatic checking is a bit of a problem with the current design. It would be very many domains to check at once even if most are not inspected by the user.. I'm still thinking about a better system here.
Gys 11y ago
Looks good and works great. Well done ! I will keep it in mind if I look for something. I also like the design. Did you use something or create it from scratch ?
- ZenSwordArts 11y ago
  Thanks! I used UIkit (http://getuikit.com/ http://getuikit.com/) as frontend framework. After having used boostrap and others, I really like it most. Other than that I did everything myself.. layout, colors etc. with one exception: I didn't create the icons on the landing page myself but the attribution is mentioned on the about page.
theviajerock 11y ago
Great job man, added to my favorites... i am absolutely terrible choosing names for my projects.
- ZenSwordArts 11y ago
  Hehe thanks! Glad you like it. It's really really good to hear positive feedback after all that time tinkering with it :)
johnward 11y ago
My favorite one, when looking for consulting related names: taconsulting Though it says taconsulting.com is available but it's registered. Also when I click the namecheap affiliate link it would be nice if it landed on the domain search page with the chosen domain as the keyword. Not sure where you are doing the whois to see if the domain is registered. It seem pretty inaccurate.
- ZenSwordArts 11y ago
  Thanks for your feedback. I'm not sure yet what is causing the problem. It could be that someone just registered the domain because i cache the results for a few minutes.. or the api I use produces too many bad results.. I will hopefully figure it out. Your other point is already on my todo list and will be implemented soon. I'm still in the process of unifying different affiliate merchants.. using some of them directly, some via CJ makes things ugly (code wise).
  - johnward 11y ago
    For some reason all of the consulting names are hilarious to me. "baconsulting" "mexiconsulting" I've worked with CJ apis before and they were pretty bad.
    - ZenSwordArts 11y ago
      Yea it can spit out hilarious stuff.. Just to update you. Some affiliate links (e.g. namecheap) now redirect directly to the corresponding domain. I've also changed the domain availability check from the api I used before to a homegrown dns ns lookup. This is not 100% accurate too but seems to be better and a lot faster until now!

20 points by ZenSwordArts 11y ago

Author here. I worked on that project part time for the last months. The backend is completely written in Go (Revel framework). There are a lot of features on my todo list but I thought it would be a good time for release. If you have any insights or questions I'm happy to answer!

charlieegan3 11y ago

This is great - the random names are particularly good. I did notice however that a high number of the 'available domains' are not. Might want to take a look into how they're checked. It'd also be nice if the checking happened automatically, as it does on https://domainr.com/ https://domainr.com/ Really nice looking project though.

ZenSwordArts 11y ago
Hey thanks! It's nice to get some positive feedback on a project :) I use an api from a domain registrar to check domain availability at the moment. I will investigate this.. should not be happening. The automatic checking is a bit of a problem with the current design. It would be very many domains to check at once even if most are not inspected by the user.. I'm still thinking about a better system here.

Gys 11y ago

Looks good and works great. Well done ! I will keep it in mind if I look for something. I also like the design. Did you use something or create it from scratch ?

ZenSwordArts 11y ago
Thanks! I used UIkit (http://getuikit.com/ http://getuikit.com/) as frontend framework. After having used boostrap and others, I really like it most. Other than that I did everything myself.. layout, colors etc. with one exception: I didn't create the icons on the landing page myself but the attribution is mentioned on the about page.

theviajerock 11y ago

Great job man, added to my favorites... i am absolutely terrible choosing names for my projects.

ZenSwordArts 11y ago
Hehe thanks! Glad you like it. It's really really good to hear positive feedback after all that time tinkering with it :)

johnward 11y ago

My favorite one, when looking for consulting related names: taconsulting Though it says taconsulting.com is available but it's registered. Also when I click the namecheap affiliate link it would be nice if it landed on the domain search page with the chosen domain as the keyword. Not sure where you are doing the whois to see if the domain is registered. It seem pretty inaccurate.

ZenSwordArts 11y ago
Thanks for your feedback. I'm not sure yet what is causing the problem. It could be that someone just registered the domain because i cache the results for a few minutes.. or the api I use produces too many bad results.. I will hopefully figure it out. Your other point is already on my todo list and will be implemented soon. I'm still in the process of unifying different affiliate merchants.. using some of them directly, some via CJ makes things ugly (code wise).
- johnward 11y ago
  For some reason all of the consulting names are hilarious to me. "baconsulting" "mexiconsulting" I've worked with CJ apis before and they were pretty bad.
  - ZenSwordArts 11y ago
    Yea it can spit out hilarious stuff.. Just to update you. Some affiliate links (e.g. namecheap) now redirect directly to the corresponding domain. I've also changed the domain availability check from the api I used before to a homegrown dns ns lookup. This is not 100% accurate too but seems to be better and a lot faster until now!